10StepsToEndAbortion.com

There is a wide variety of pro-life activities and strategies.
Priests for Life has been at the forefront of planning and guiding such
strategy and training, and offers the following summary of some of the
key dynamics and activities of the pro-life movement as it moves toward
the goal of ending abortion.

1. Pray!

Prayer is the foundation of all we do in
the pro-life movement, and puts us in touch with the source of our life
and freedom, God himself. Pray each day the Prayer to End
Abortion, which you can download at
www.PrayerCampaign.org.

On that page, you will also see during
various seasons of the year, and as we approach various special feasts
and holidays, we have special prayers that combine the pro-life theme
with the theme of those special days.

Urge your family, parish, school, and
pro-life organization to say these prayers regularly. You can also order
beautifully printed cards for each of these prayers. See the links at
www.PrayerCampaign.org.

2. Promote Alternatives!

The easiest single reference to help free
someone from feeling she has to abort her child is the Option Line,
1-800-712-HELP (4357), and its associated website,
www.PregnancyCenters.org. This number connects the caller to the
nearest pregnancy resource center.

Individuals should keep this
information close at hand at all times, and also share them with
schools, hospitals, and other community groups.

Pastors should place this information on
the parish bulletin and website.

The numbers can be placed on posters, business cards, in newspaper ads,
on the internet, and on signs posted in Churches, stores, and other
places. You may also inquire at these numbers as to how you can
volunteer to assist those who provide alternatives to abortion.

3. Promote Healing!

Confidential, caring, expert help is available
for those who have had abortions and need a friendly ear as they walk
through the pain and try to regain hope and meaning in their lives. The
resources available for this help and healing can be found at
www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org/resources.

On that page, you will find a search box. By
entering a zip code, you will find the pregnancy centers, post-abortion
ministries, and
Rachel’s Vineyard retreat sites within a reasonable distance of that
zip code.

To promote this information as far and wide as
possible is to free people from guilt, shame and despair and to show the
true face of the pro-life movement, which is a movement of compassion
and mercy.

4. Use Testimonies!

The personal witness of those who have lost
children to abortion breaks the spell that abortion is somehow good or
helpful for an individual or society. More and more women and men are
speaking publicly about the devastation abortion has brought to their
lives, and also about the fact that the pro-life movement and the Church
bring healing. These voices are multiplying through the Silent No More
Awareness Campaign. You can read and share these testimonies in print,
audio, and video format at
www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org/testimonies.

As a way of showing your commitment to the
two action items above, you can partner with the campaign, as an
individual, Church, or organization. See
www.silentnomoreawareness.org/partner for details on how to do this.

5. Speak Up!

There are many ways in which you can speak
up for the unborn, whether in private conversation, letters to the
editor, comments on blogs and other
social
networking sites, You Tube videos,
and various forms of lobbying elected and appointed officials.

It is also crucial to be a voice publicly,
by taking part in demonstrations, Life Chains, and other gatherings that
bring the truth of abortion to the public. Presence at abortion
facilities, moreover, provides a way to let your voice be heard by those
who run those places of death, by those who resort to them, and by the
community that allows them to operate.

We offer training in all these areas.
Various resources are available, such as

6. Be Politically Active!

The pro-life movement frees people from the
oppression of unjust laws and policies. We foster political
responsibility, and participation in elections and lobbying, so as to
advance the culture of life. Our election headquarters at
www.PoliticalResponsibility.com provide ongoing guidance for this
kind of activity.

One of the ways we exercise political
responsibility is by fostering non-partisan voter registration drives.
As an individual, Church, or organization, you can help fellow citizens
to register so that they can have a voice in each year’s elections! Go
to our voter registration page to find
out how.

On Election Day, and during early voting
season, you can advance the culture of life by helping people get to the
polls. Raising awareness, sending reminders, helping the homebound fill
out absentee ballots, and providing transportation to the polls are some
of the many ways to do this. Information about early voting dates in
each state that has them is available at
www.priestsforlife.org/states. Additional information about getting
out the vote is available at
www.PoliticalResponsibility.com.

7. Expose Abortion!

St. Paul writes, “Have nothing to do
with the fruitless works of darkness; rather, expose them!” (Eph.
5:11). A key reason abortion continues is that its violence is hidden.
Hence for so many people, the word “abortion” has lost all meaning.
Often enough, the problem is not that people support abortion, but
rather that they have never seen it. When its violence is exposed to the
light of human conscience, most will reject it.

Our “Is this what you mean?” campaign
challenges abortion supporters to admit what it is, and in the process,
either shows others either what it is, or shows them that it’s too
horrible for its supporters to describe. It’s a winning strategy, and
all the tools you need to carry it out are here:
www.priestsforlife.org/isthiswhatyoumean.

Besides exposing the procedure itself,
through photos
and
descriptions, we also expose the harm it does to women, men, and
families, as mentioned above, and we expose the corruption in the
abortion clinics, as mentioned below.

8. Expose the Abortion Industry!

Many believe that because abortion is
legal, it is therefore safe, carried out in licensed facilities, and
under the guidance of trained professionals who follow all the standards
of modern medicine, with the best interests of their patients at heart.

But when it comes to abortion, nothing can
be further from the truth. The abortion industry is corrupt,
unregulated, unscrupulous, and just plain dangerous. The more we expose
the malpractice and abuse to the public, the more they will see that the
abortion battle is not between mother and child, but between the
abortion industry on one side and mother and child on the other.

One way to do this is to
order your own copy of Lime 5, which details the corruption in the
abortion industry and explains why and how this strategy works.

9. Take to the Streets!

Many people go out of their way to avoid
talking or thinking about abortion. Yet we have to get a substantial
number of people focusing on the problem in order to end it. Therefore
we have to put ourselves in their path, which is exactly what we do by
having peaceful, First Amendment gatherings and communications in the
public forum. Literature distribution, Life Chains, demonstrations,
parades, rallies, and similar events can spread the pro-life message.

Yet it is not only a matter of giving a
message; it is also a matter of intervening directly to save lives at
the places where the killing occurs. Presence at abortion mills is a key
way to weaken the abortion industry.

10. Be a Missionary of the Gospel of Life!

Pro-life activity is not simply a hobby or
a cause or a political ideology. It is, at its core, a spirituality, an
aspect of our discipleship. Pro-life spirituality, rooted in
the Gospel, gives us both the why and how of pro-life
activity, trains us in the virtues we need to carry it out, and insures
that our activity is rooted in God and leads us back to God. After
engaging in training with us, people can make public promises to live
out this pro-life spirituality.